


Major Arcana

by sunshineline



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, English major Jaebum, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute?, Photography, Tarot, jinyoung has braces because i Said So., yugyeom and bambam are dating in the bg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 13:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13812597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshineline/pseuds/sunshineline
Summary: Jaebum is lonely and Jinyoung needs a model.





	Major Arcana

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hyuukiyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyuukiyo/gifts).



> my friend kathi requested this!! i had a LOT of fun with this, despite not being familiar with got7 (i say, despite having binge-watched real got7 multiple times), but i am super worried that this is garbage haha. kathi paid for this....it has to be Good....
> 
> like my writing? you're in luck! i'm currently taking comms. check out my tumblr for more info!! selfdxtaehyung.tumblr.com

Jaebum is sitting at the top of the stairwell, reading. At his back is a wall of windows and to his left is the maintenance door. He had tried going to the library earlier, because he hadn’t left his room except to go to class in two weeks, but it was packed and he fled. His palms are still sweaty. Really, all he needed to do was get out, and he did that. What does it matter that he isn't going to the library? Mission accomplished. Yugyeom would be disappointed, and so would Jackson, but whatever. Both of them are much too concerned with Jaebum's social life (or lack thereof) and need to leave him alone for once. Besides, they're always too busy to hang out with him, so who's fault is it really?

So, because he’s coming up on the end of the semester and his only two friends are swamped with studying and binge-drinking, he started The Catcher in the Rye again. He's just got to the part where Holden is trying to explain to Stradlater how Jane plays checkers, and Stradlater doesn’t understand why it’s important. That's one of his favourite details. Holden notices things about people and connects them to the larger picture, sees patterns in behaviour, understands unspoken things.

Jaebum wants to be like that.

"Um, hello."

Jaebum looks up to see a boy about his age peeking up over the top stairs, neck craned as if he's afraid to get any closer. His brown eyes are boxed in by thick, black glasses and obscured by a fashionably unruly fringe while the rest of his hair is kept tame by his rusty orange beanie. He’s wearing a big, over saturated yellow sweater and black overalls.

"You're Jaebum? Maybe?" He asks with a twitching smile. He has braces. "Sorry, this is weird."

"Yeah," Jaebum agrees, feeling shy, folding the corner of the page he was on and setting his book down. "But some weirdness is okay. Do we have class together?"

"No, um, Yugyeom told me where to find you. He said you were either here or in your room, but I was really hoping that you were here because knocking on your door would have felt way weirder. He told me that you look sort of severe when you aren't smiling? Um." He presses a hand against his cheek and closes his eyes briefly, then swallows. "Sorry. I look severe too. I'm Jinyoung."

"If you live your life being this nervous, you won't make it to thirty," Jaebum says with a small laugh. Jinyoung seems to relax a little, and brings his hands up to run up and down his backpack straps. "It's nice to meet you, Jinyoung. I don't always trust Yugyeom's friends, but you seem like an outlier."

Jinyoung laughs at that, throws his head back and nearly loses his balance.

"I've never had someone seek me out before." Jaebum stretches his arms out in front of him, and then up over his head. He cracks his neck. "Has Yugyeom been hyping me up?"

"Oh, no. Not really." Jinyoung takes the last two steps up onto the landing, and leans against the maintenance door. He looks down at Jaebum. "He said you're nice and have too much time on your hands."

Jaebum grimaces.

"There was context to that," Jinyoung assures him quickly. "I need a favour."

"I’m interested. But, I need a little more detail before I agree to anything." Jaebum brings his knees up to his chest and hugs them tightly. "And I won’t sign anything without a lawyer."

Jinyoung scrunches his nose and smiles. "My portfolio is due next month and I need a model."

Jaebum lets the silence drag out a beat too long. "Nude?"

"Thankfully not."

"Well," Jaebum has to admit that it’s an exciting prospect. "Tell me what you have in mind."

"Do you know anything about Tarot?"

-

Jaebum stresses over his outfit.

"That looks good," Jinyoung says from the desk, swaying side to side in Jaebum’s office chair.

Jaebum checks himself out in the mirror. He’s wearing a band t-shirt that he’s had since he was 13, downy soft from nearly a decade of washes, and his dark green bomber jacket. He only has one pair of jeans, so that solves that problem, but he can’t help but feel underdressed.

"I’m not used to dressing up," he admits, eyebrows knitted up. "Advise me?"

"You’re overthinking it," Jinyoung says with a smile, showing off his braces again. "This is just casual. Besides, it’s your face that I’m most excited about."

Jaebum throws Jinyoung a smirk over his shoulder.

"We have to stop by my room before heading out. I’m on the fourth floor."

"Oh," Jaebum says, grabbing his keys. "The party floor."

Jinyoung's room is a disaster zone. His laundry hamper is bursting at the seams, his desk and shelves are crowded with loose papers, crumpled sticky notes, and upturned textbooks, and his windowsill is hosting a wide variety of empty water bottles and soda cans. Dirty mugs, glasses, and bowls are stacked together on the floor beside his closet.

"I clean on Thursdays," Jinyoung says, sensing the judgement that’s coming off Jaebum in waves.

"But not before or after." Jaebum sits down on Jinyoung's bed. There are two decks of Tarot sitting among the duvet. One is partly open and spilling out cards filled with dark, lush forests and fairies holding sparkling, crystal wands.

Jinyoung’s portfolio is Tarot themed. His first ten photographs, Ace of Wands through to Ten of Wands, were taken in the studio on campus. The Ace of Wands that starts it all, is a lonely glass wand hanging down from the ceiling on fishing wire, surrounded by fake flowers that are also suspended from fishing wire, and all the succeeding cards are similar glass wands arranged around Jinyoung’s cat. Who is wearing a rusty red cape and hat. For the Page, Knight, King, and Queen of Wands, Jinyoung made a deal with his roommate Mark, a Fine Arts major, and was gifted with four clay sculptures. It helped Mark out, too, because he was able to use the sculptures as part of his final project. Which might count as plagiarism? They haven’t thought too hard about it.

The next 22 photos in Jinyoung’s portfolio will follow the The Fool’s Journey from The Fool to The World. Now, this is where Jaebum comes in. Jinyoung desperately needs some examples of his work in natural light and with human models, and Mark is so wrapped up in his final projects and exams that he doesn’t have time to lend Jinyoung any more art. Thus, Jaebum is his Fool.

"You can look through them if you want. We’re going to use the Rider-Waite deck for the shoot." Jinyoung climbs up on his desk, kneeling on it, to reach the top shelf. He rummages around, pushing aside hats and notebooks and trash, mumbling. "I know I put it up here."

"You know we have dorm inspections tomorrow, don't you?"

"Aha!" Jinyoung holds his camera above his head and looks at it critically, then opens the film compartment. He makes a distracted hum, sounding a little disappointed and a little uninterested. "I clean fast. Besides, they aren't allowed to open drawers. Okay, ready to go?"

This is what Jaebum learns about Jinyoung on their walk to the lake:

Jinyoung is his age, but is some sort of freak of nature who enjoys 8AM classes and tries to have at least 7 classes per semester. That, coupled with a summer program he's got going on, means he's about to graduate two whole years before Jaebum. He's also on scholarship.

Jinyoung met Yugyeom at the Pride Club's LGBTQ movie night, back when Yugyeom was a freshman who still got lost trying to find the bus loop, and helped Yugyeom draft a coming out text to his mom. Later in the semester, Jinyoung met Kunpimook sitting outside the media room way after hours, showed him how to make it seem like he returned his camera on time, and somewhere along the way introduced him to Yugyeom. And the rest is history.

"This isn't my camera," Jinyoung says with a giggle. He's sitting on a rock that separates the cobblestone clearing from the sand of the beach, cross legged, fiddling with the camera. "I desperately need something in my portfolio that shows I can work with film, but I prefer digital."

"So you don't know how to use it?" Jaebum teases. Jinyoung smiles at him. "I don't think I'd even be able to tell the difference between a picture taken with film and one taken with digital."

"Maybe not. It took me a long time." Jinyoung looks through the viewfinder and scrunches up his lips in a frustrated frown. "It's kinda my own fault. We had tons of opportunities to get used to film, honestly, and I only ever did the bare minimum. Once I get the settings sorted out then we're golden, but it's going to take me a bit."

"Can you work and talk at the same time? Because I could use some direction. Tell me about who I'm supposed to be."

Jinyoung's eyes light up and he reaches into his bag for his Tarot deck. "Have you modeled before?"

Jaebum scratches at his hairline and shrugs. "Not really, but I was in theatre all through high school, so I know a little about getting into character."

"Nice, I was in the drama club." Jinyoung pulls on the drawstrings of his Tarot bag and pulls out his cards, shuffling through and pulling out all 22 cards of the Major Arcana. "Alright, well, I'll give you the rundown."

The Fool's Journey starts with card 0, The Fool themself. The Fool has their head in the clouds and a belief that life holds endless possibilities, but with their eyes on the sky they don't notice that they're walking toward a cliff. A dog sprints alongside The Fool, barking in warning. Jinyoung says that The Fool is foolish and dreamy, holding onto the innocence of childhood, but also motivated, eager, and positive. Truly, The Fool is the beginning of it all  
.  
"So, if I pulled The Fool, would that mean that I was destined to fail?" Jaebum asks. He holds the card carefully and tries to absorb every detail of the picture in front of him.

Jinyoung tilts his head from side to side and hums. "Not really. It's more like... if you've ever started a project without figuring out the details. The Fool should remind you to keep grounded and pay attention to risk, or to let yourself be spontaneous and make mistakes, because you're likely starting off on a new adventure."

Holden, Jaebum thinks. Holden is The Fool. From Pencey Prep to New York, Holden jumps headfirst into a journey with practically no premeditation. He wants to protect children, let them keep their childhoods for as long as possible, but it's not as if he has viable career goals related to that. And then, at the end, he lets Phoebe reach for the ring. From there, he can begin to heal from the loss of Allie.

"I've got it!" Jinyoung rocks back and faces the sky with a deep, relieved sigh. "I'll give you the rest of the story while we shoot. Okay?"

Jaebum swallows his nerves. "Okay. And, after, do you want to go back to my room and hang out?"

Jinyoung smiles. "I'd like that."

-

Jinyoung nudges Jaebum. "Hey."

Jaebum cracks one eye open and looks up at Jinyoung. Jinyoung's hair is a mess, his glasses are sliding down his nose, and his lips are chapped. He fidgets, tugging at his sleeves down over his fingers, but smiles.

"I was going to head out." Jinyoung looks toward the door, then down. He brings his arms up, shakes his hands out of his sleeves, and then worries with the collar of his sweater. "Model for me again sometime?"

Jaebum sits up slowly, taking a second to squint around his bedroom and crack his neck. The book slides down his chest and falls off onto the carpet beside him, closing. "Can it be soon? I. I had a really good time."

"I'm thinking about talking to my professor," Jinyoung says with a chuckle, pushing his glasses up with his wrist and then scrunching his nose. "I could tell him that you're necessary for my work ethic, and then you come sit with me in class every Wednesday."

Jaebum shakes his head and grins. "Say it's an accessibility thing. I'm your service dog."

"Text me." Jinyoung calls over his shoulder as he leaves.

The door closes behind Jinyoung, and Jaebum's dorm feels very empty and still. It isn't unpleasant, just different. It's confusing to think there was a time that Jaebum spent all of his time in this sort of silence, this brand of inaction. He sits for a moment, still waking up, wondering if he has enough free time to get to campus and sneak into Jinyoung's photography 3 class on Wednesday.

He picks up The Catcher in The Rye and thumbs through into the middle, picking up where he left off.

-

Jinyoung calls Jaebum at 7 in the morning. Jaebum's voice is ghastly at this time of the day, and his hello comes out barely intelligible.

"I take it you don't have class." Jinyoung laughs.

"Not until 3." Jaebum clears his throat, but still comes out with barely a whisper. He heads to his mini fridge for a juice box. "Are you on campus?"

"Yeah. Come to the darkroom."

Jaebum frowns into the middle distance, sucking up his whole juice box in one breath. His room is pretty dark right now, can't Jinyoung just come over here instead?

"Hello?"

"Darkroom," Jaebum says.

"It's booked solid for the next two weeks," Jinyoung explains. "This is the only time it's free. It's in the Art wing basement. You know, near the studio and the multi-faith room?"

"Oh." Jaebum decides to keep the fact that he momentarily thought Jaebum was referring to a random, darkened room, to himself. Of course it would be about photography. "Sure, okay, gimme ten minutes."

"Don't wear sandals."

Getting to the darkroom proves to be a little bit of an adventure in of itself.

Jinyoung is wearing a rainbow striped sweater that's tight to his chest and tucked into pale, distressed jeans that he has cuffed at the ankles. He's rocking slightly back and forth on his feet, running his hands up and down the straps of his backpack, student ID on a kitty cat patterned lanyard around his neck.

Jaebum, more than a little worried that his breath smells like stale coffee, pops three pieces of mint gum into his mouth. The menthol burns up the back of his throat and out his nose. "Fancy meeting you here."

Jinyoung blinks back to reality and whips around to face Jaebum. "Jae! We only have an hour. Did you bring your ID? You've gotta sign in."

"Uh." Jaebum pats down his pockets with a spark of anxiety. He finds his student ID in the breast pocket of his jacket, and breathes out heavily. "We're good."

The darkroom is not pitch black like Jaebum expected, but instead lit up in red. There’s an island in the center of the room filled with deep sinks, and the left wall is taken up by two stalls that house what look to be heavy duty microscopes. He can just barely make out strings and clothespins against the right and center walls, and the photographs hanging from them. Four shallow plastic bins sit on the countertop to his right, surrounded by various bottles and tongs. The rest of the room is filled with equipment that Jaebum doesn’t have the vocabulary for.

Jinyoung doesn't have time to give Jaebum a tour of the room and its equipment, which is just as well what with how slowly Jaebum's eyes are adjusting to the lack of white light. He can barely locate Jinyoung ten inches in front of him.

"I'm making doubles of everything," Jinyoung says, voice a little softer now that they’re inside. He gets right to work, digging through his backpack for the negatives and setting them on the counter.

"Are these the photos I'm in?"

Jinyoung hums a yes. "I'm not used to shooting in natural light, if I'm honest. Or people, for that matter! I usually stick to plants and my cat."

Jaebum blinks, trying to see better. "When can I meet your cat? By the way."

"Come over tomorrow?" Jinyoung reaches up into the cupboard and pulls out two thin plastic sheets. "Anyway, okay, these are Negative Carriers. I'm making doubles because I can't decide whether I should do flat or contrasty? And I have more than enough print credit left to last me the rest of my degree."

"So you're doing both," Jaebum says with a smile. "That's something I would do. Stuck between writing about how Holden Caulfield is definitely Bipolar and how he’s definitely the victim of CSA? Do both! Fuck it, right?"

"Fuck it" is pretty much my strategy for everything," Jinyoung looks at Jaebum out of the corner of his eye. "But, wait, I haven't read Catcher and The Rye since I was in high school, so I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Is he really Bipolar?"

"Well, historically, it’s been hard to prove that Holden fits neatly into one diagnosis or another." Jaebum feels a thrill of excitement. "But I could make an argument for it."

"I think..." Jinyoung adjusts the microscope-looking thing. "I wanna hear that argument."

"Well," Jaebum rubs his chin. "How long do you have?"

"One hour. Start talking."

**Author's Note:**

> life update!! i got into a outpatient day program and the past two weeks have been tough. but im finally writing again!! my plan is to finish we finally meet first, because it's so god damn overdue for a conclusion, so im putting i was asked to improvise and to be alone with you on hold. 
> 
> i'm also participating in the NB's 2018 fic bingo, so look forward to that in june!! thanks as always for supporting me.


End file.
